Urban Design

LECTURE 3
The Functional Dimension

Abhishek K. Venkitaraman
Assistant Professor

FUNCTIONAL CONSIDERATIONS:

The use of public spaces

Mix use and density
Environmental design
Aspects of the capital web

THE USE OF PUBLIC SPACES

Five Primary needs that people seek
to satisfy in Public Space:
Comfort
Relaxation
Passive engagement
Active engagement
Discovery

COMFORT
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS ( relief from sun, wind, etc )
PHYSICAL COMFORT (comfortable and sufficient
seating)
SOCIAL COMFORT and PSYCHOLOGICAL COMFORT
(Sense of Security)

From the
streets of
Varanasi

RELAXATION
When BODY and MIND is at ease
- Natural elements (trees, water features), separation
from vehicular traffic etc. accentuate relaxed moods.

From the
streets of
Varanasi

Community
Park, Varanasi

PASSIVE ENGAGEMENT
-People watching
-Fountains, views, Public art, Performances etc.

From the Ghats of Varanasi

During Aarti in the Ghats of

Varanasi

PASSIVE
ENGAGEMENT

ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT
It involves more direct experience with a place and the people within.

Ghats of Varanasi
https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2865/10957146404_c4a717efe6_b.jpg

Transition
Aesthetic appeal

Street furniture: relaxation

A Public park in Paris

Triangulation

Successful public spaces provide

opportunities for varying degrees of
engagement, and also for disengaging
from contact

William H. Whyte
observed that interaction, or
a sense of community,
between two strangers in
a public space is encouraged
by a third activity or object
they can both share. This
might be a fountain, a
performance, or even music
they can both hear; but
triangulation is an essential
feature of all good public
places.
Dhalpur, Kullu

DISCOVERY
People desire new spectacles and pleasurable experiences.
It depends on variety and change. These may come with the cycle of seasons, and they may
also result from the management and animation of public space.

Eg. Lunch-time concerts, art exhibitions, street theater, festivals, markets, society events, etc.

SOCIAL USE OF SPACE

Most sociable spaces usually possessed the following
features:
A good location, is on a busy route and both
physically and visually accessible
Spaces which are not isolated by fencing- from street
Spaces level or almost level with the pavement
The availability for places to sit (steps, low walls,
seats, etc) with movable seats.

PUBLIC SPACES:
Typology

Street as a Public Place

A Street from Karlsruhe, Germany

Plaza, squares, parks, streets - public realm, public life

Reasons for demise - may not be privatization or
telecommunications, but car culture
Critical role between public space and pedestrian life

Why are Public Spaces important ?

Urban open spaces are crucial to city residents because, if

done right, these spaces not only provide aesthetically pleasing
escapes, but also enhance the emotional well being of the city's
residents as well as advance the interests of environmental
advocacy, social justice and inclusion

12 Steps to a great Public Space

Protection from traffic
Protection from crime
Protection from the elements
A place to walk
A place to stop and stand
A place to sit
Things to see
Opportunities for conversations
Opportunities for play
Human-scale
Opportunities to enjoy good weather
Aesthetic quality
Jan Gehl & Lars Gemzoe

Dimensions of Public Space

Political dimension

Economic dimension

Environmental dimension

Social dimension

Social dimension

System of public spaces

Connections

Connections

Connections

THREE TYPES OF PEDESTRIAN ACTIVITIES

Necessary activities
The things that have to be
done:
Going to school, waiting
for the bus and going to
work.
In the short term these
types of activities occur
regardless of the quality
of the physical
environment because
people are compelled to
carry them out.
A Good City provides
good conditions for the
many necessary
activities and will retain
and strengthen these
activities over
time.

Optional activities (urban

recreation)
Activities people are tempted
to do when climatic
conditions, surroundings
and the place are generally
inviting and attractive.
These activities are especially
sensitive to quality. They
only occur when quality is
high.
People come to town, find
the places attractive and
stay
for a long time. A great,
attractive city can always be
recognized
by the fact that many people
choose to spend time in the
public spaces.

Social activities
These activities occur
whenever people move
about in the
same spaces.
Watching, listening,
experiencing other
people,
passive and active
participation.
A Good City offers a
wide range of attractive
optional activities,
and because so many
people are present in the
city, there
are many people to
experience, watch and
speak to. The city
becomes a lively and
wonderful city. A people
city.

ACTIVITIES

The role of public space

Public space play different roles for different sets of citizens and their
publicness.
Serving as medium for performance of public life, public space has always
been live value analysis of structural changes of public domain.

Types of public space

external public space as pieces of land that lie between private

landholdings such as public squares, streets, parks, stretches of coastline,
rivers, etc.
Carmona, Heath, Oc and Tiesdell (2003)

internal 'public' space or public institutions such as libraries, museums, town

halls, train or bus stations, etc.
Carmona, Heath, Oc and Tiesdell (2003)

external and internal quasi-public' space :

Places such as university campuses, sports grounds, restaurants also form part
of the public realm, if only nominally, because their owners and operators
retain rights to regulate access and behavior there.

Carmona, Heath, Oc and Tiesdell (2003)

Challenges of public space prominently are shifting focus from political to

economic.

Markers of public space:

ownership and accessibility

Public space consists of collection of buildings or it exist as inseparable part of

built environment and therefore creates and delimits common.

Splintering of public space is more a matter of accessibility than ownership.

Therefore accessibility is the key factor for successful public space

There are three basic forms of accessibility:

visual, physical and symbolic.

Built space is socially constructed

STREETS
These are the connections
between spaces and places,
as well as being spaces
themselves.
They are defined by their
physical dimension and
character as well as the size,
scale, and character of the
buildings that line them.
The pattern of the street
network is part of what
defines a city and what
makes each city unique.

Major street space uses

A street from Sringeri, Karnataka

Transportation

Walkabilty

Parking

A street from Kalpathy, Palakkad, Kerala

A street from Kalpathy, Palakkad, Kerala

A street from Kalpathy, Palakkad, Kerala

Street Hierarchy & Recreational activities

Advance of urbanism in twentieth century brought the decline in the utility of streets and
thoroughfares as recreational spaces. There is a great relationship between the road
capacity and recreational utility.

Walking and cycling

Shopping
Children playing
Socializing / people-watching

Street as a Public Place

Fundamental reality of streets is political (as with all public space)
Public domain taking precedence over individual rights
The street structures community
The only legitimacy of a street is as a public space.
Practical needs: access to adjacent property, passage of through traffic
It puts on display the workings of a city and supplies a backdrop for its common rituals.
Best example, popular street celebrations which after Renaissance, were gradually
banished or interiorized.

An Indian street from Kolkata

Culture and class

Houses and shops represent the private elements of
streets
Ancient Greece
Mesopotamia
Islamic city
All of above are inturned, backs to streets
Other cases of withdrawing from street
A matter of culture, but also class (wealthy often
withdraw)
For Chinese of all classes, dependence of house on the
public space of the street was never important
The relative balance between the dwellers freedom
of action and the identity of public domain, is
ultimately a cultural matter.
It depends on the traditional needs and attitudes of
the society, which changes over time.

Culture and class

Congestion and Slums

The growing population led to
congestion.
The traditional height increased from
2 to 3 and 4 storeys in Dwelling units.
Population
Density
increased
without change in systems of water
supply or sanitation.
Wheel traffic increased.
The streets were filth ridden thrown
from dwelling windows.
Disease spread and led to
epidemics.
The cities reverted to an inferior
condition.
Great Plague of London :
Epidemic of Bubonic plague in
1665-66

A fish market in London

Great Plague of London

The Regulated Street

Esthetic street regulation is the pride of Baroque design
Prescriptive faade design gave the new districts of 17th c. Dresden and Berlin visual
uniformity that belied the private, speculative nature of development.
Public safety
Public health
England, storm drains, piped water, and sewers introduced around 1800
After 17th c., demand for wider streets based on health
Also a result of coaches
" bye-law street" in mid 19th c. England: long stretches of terraces cut by infrequent cross
streets alleys in back
no gardens
no trees
concern for light and air stops at the building line
in Germany, wide streets compensated with dense, tall buildings
After 1880, wide streets seen as unhealthy in Germany because they fostered wind and
dust

TRANSPORT
Transport systems connect the
parts of cities and help shape
them, and enable movement
throughout the city.
They include road, rail,
bicycle,
and
pedestrian
networks, and together form
the total movement system of
a city.

The balance of these various transport systems

is what helps define the quality and character
of cities, and makes them either friendly or
hostile to pedestrians.

Overview
Synthesis of various dimensions
like
form
perception
social
visual
functional etc.

Elements of urban form through history

according to Spiro Kostof (City Assembled)
The City Edge
Urban Divisions
Public Places
The Street
Urban Process

Elements of urban form, when looked at as a

complete unit / pattern according to Spiro
Kostof:(City Shaped)
Organic Patterns
The Grid
The City as a Diagram
The Grand Manner
The Urban Skyline
Elements of

URBAN DESIGN

BUILDINGS
PUBLIC SPACES
STREETS
TRANSPORT
LANDSCAPE

URBAN
FORM
Main Reference:

City
Assembled
by
Spiro Kostof

Elements of Urban Form

through History
PUBLIC SPACES
As detailed by: Spiro Kostof

Public Spaces
General feeling that there has been a decline in public space
Plaza, squares, parks, streets - public realm, public life

Reasons for demise - may not be privatization or

telecommunications, but car culture
Critical role between public space and pedestrian life

Public Spaces
The nature of public places
Two important aspects:
1. familiar and chance ecounters; freedom of action;
freedom to participate or to be inactive
2. public ritual - public places are the setting for communal
action; shared record of civic action; physical manifestation of
civic behavior
can be meeting place, marketplace, thoroughfare
the Laws of the Indies, 1573 - main plaza is the starting point
of the town

Public Spaces
The life and control of the public
Purpose of public space:
Specialized functions: markets, militia drills, feast day ceremonies
A place where community can be embraced or
A place where social conflict is worked out
These are somewhat conflicting
Early on, rulers felt need to dominate public squares
Social orders are changed through the design and control of the public
space
Public places are like physical evidence
There is always the hand of government, regulating, controlling
Restricting access to public space
Regulating behavior in public space

Piazza Della Signoria in Florence

It is the focal point of the origin and of
the history of the Florentine Republic
and still maintains its reputation as the
political hub of the city

 This creates a conflict

Ongoing issue - Sharon Zukin
Sociologist
Critique of urban public space being appropriated and privatized by corporate
and commercial forces
Redesign of Bryant Park - was the domain of homeless panhandlers and drug
dealers
Based on ideas of William Whyte
Zukin sees this as white middle-class taking over true public life
Article "mistaking public life for community life
Public life should be messy, and is not about resolving conflict
Are people scarred by what they have seen happen to their public places?
The pope who had a row of houses constructed down the center of a public
square to prevent large public gatherings.
In Czechoslovakia, the Communist government tried force to keep the people
from massing in Pragues Wenceslas Square.

Privatized public realms

Residential spaces clustered around a square
Appears in many different time periods, including our own versions
The clan piazza
Space for a particular clan, family
Similar to neighborhood space
Used by a small group of citizens
Common in medieval towns
Clan houses clustered around the square
English square
Starting 17th century
For elite

Piazza San Matteo,Genoa(Italy) ,

centers on the church dedicated to the
familys patron saint.
Other family places are visible on the
left.

Courtyard and square

Enclosure of public gathering places often based on
mosque or church
Islamic cities
Well-defined public space, though not in Western sense
Maidan - space around a mosque or monumental public
building
Collectivity not in a civic arena as in Rome
But in small maidans
Irregular public spaces (contrast to West is striking)
Small and dispersed

When Roman cities are overtaken by Muslim conquerors, the mosque is placed over the
forum
Relationship between courtyard associated with religion and public square can evolve over
time
Starts out as church courtyard
Evolves to civic space
Monasteries often start out at edge, but eventually are within city
Even courtyard of mosque can transform later to atrio

Florence(Italy), Piazza of the Santissima

Annunziata. On the right is Bruneeleschis
loggia of the founding hospital,(1425).
A century later, a formal piazza was created
with construction opposite to the loggia.
Finally in 1601-08 the statue of Grand Duke
Ferdinando was erected in the middle.

The distribution of public places

Location could be accident, could be planned
Some spaces are tenacious over time, although change their use:
A large public monument of one period with an open usable space might become a
public square in another period.
Some spaces originally planned could be obliterated

At the city edge

The maidan might have been a marketplace at the edge that later got appropriated by a
mosque
Musalla - large open space at edge of city to accommodate large gatherings, executions,
festivals, markets
Happens in west, too - sports fields eventually become central squares

Boston Common at
the Waters Edge,
and later at the
reclaimed land of
beacon Hill when it
found itself in the
center.

Town Squares
Most important factors for distribution:
Its function
Traffic patterns
Examples of types of squares and how they originated:
Port town - main square at the waterfront
City gates - space on either side often developed into squares, channelers of traffic and
long distance commerce
Palace square - exists universally
Square for nobility
" palace square" Could be extended to nobility - the granting to the private residence
the dignity of a public square
Traffic pressures at crossroads
Seen in Baroque city form - plazas inserted where radial avenues join

http://www.pps.org/
http://www.pps.org/reference/the-power-of-10/

MOVEMENT
MOVEMENT is an important factor in generating life and activity
through public spaces.
For pedestrians, the connection between places is important, and
successful public spaces are generally integrated within local
movement systems, putting in mind that a pedestrian journey is
rarely single purpose.
The by-product of movement: The potential for other (optional)
activities in addition to the basic activity of travelling from origin to
destination.

TOOL FOR ANALYSING PLACES

Space syntax is a science-based, humanfocused
approach
that
investigates
relationships between spatial layout and a
range of social, economic and environmental
phenomena.

Exposed spaces often perform better than enclosed

spaces
Places are not local things. They are moments in
large-scale things, the large-scale things we call
cities. Places do not make cities. It is cities that
make places. The distinction is vital. We cannot
make places without understanding cities.

THE CENTRE AND THE EDGE OF THE

PUBLIC SPACES
The CENTRE provides a sense of identity to the site.
Life of a Public square forms naturally around its EDGE.
If the Edge fails, the space never becomes lively.

http://www.cpdiary.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/centralpark-cp3.gif

http://know.burrp.com/wpcontent/uploads/2011/10/roundtheworld_1134312240_resize_delhi07.jpg

Building facades should be designed

so that buildings reach out to the
street and offer an active frontage
onto public space, adding interest
and vitality to the public realm.

Views into buildings provide interest

to passers-by, while views out put
eyes on the street and contribute to
its safety.

http://cdn.citylab.com/media/img/citylab/legacy/2013/07/22/
Screen%20Shot%202013-0722%20at%204.43.44%20PM.png

MacCormac (1983) develops a notion of the osmotic properties of

streets the manner in which activities within buildings percolate
through and infuse the street with life and activity, noting that some
land uses have very little relation to people in the street, while
others involve and engage people.

Characterising the activity generated by different land uses as their

transactional quality, he draws a distinction between local and
foreign transactions.

LOCAL TRANSACTIONS

http://trippertrip.com/wpcontent/uploads/2015/08/KhanMarket.jpg

http://www.livemint.com/r/LiveMint/Period1/2
015/07/04/Photos/ahmedabad.jpg

Peculiar to a place
Sensitive to change
Have active frontages
Significant impact on
street life

FOREIGN TRANSACTIONS

CBD at Saket, New Delhi

Source: self

Can Locate anywhere

Frontages with very little
impact on street life

Big box sheds surrounded by

parking: potential active
frontage is projected into the
car park, rear elevations
exposed and the streetscape
undermined

By turning the sales floor

90 and inserting the
building into a perimeter
block, access is provided
from both sides but active
street frontage is ensured

IDEA is to wrap big boxes with smaller

units to create active frontage

PUBLIC

PRIVATE

A clear definition between public and private space is a fundamental

tenet of good urbanism

MIXED USE AND DENSITY

MIXED USE AND DENSITY

Vitality of city neighbourhoods depends on the
overlapping and interweaving of activities, and
that understanding cities requires dealing with
combinations or mixtures of uses as the essential
phenomena.
- Jane Jacobs

BENEFITS:
More convenient access to facilities
Travel-to-work congestion is minimised
Greater opportunities for social interaction
Socially diverse communities
Visual stimulation and delight of different buildings
within close proximity.
A greater feeling of safety, with eyes on streets
Greater energy efficiency and more efficient use of
space and buildings
More consumer choice of lifestyle, location and
building type
Urban vitality and street life
Increased viability of urban facilities and support for
small business(such as corner shops)

Current Norms create large single use zones

Due to lack of any residential uses, the Area is dead & unsafe at night

Nehru Place Delhi - Now

UTTIPEC, Delhi Development Authority

DENSITY AND URBAN FORM

BENEFITS OF HIGHER DENSITIES:

MIXED USE AND DENSITY

TRANSIT ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT is essentially any
development be it macro or micro scale that induces people
to prefer the use of public transit.
Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is compact, mixed use development
near new or existing public transportation infrastructure that provides
housing, employment, entertainment and civic functions within walking
distance of transit.
The pedestrian-oriented design features of TODs encourages residents and
workers to drive their cars less and ride public transit more.
Transit Oriented Development can be a significant source of revenue for the
participating transit agency.

Definition Source: APTA

http://www.apta.com/research/info/briefings/briefing_8.cfm

The 3 Ds of T.O.D:
(High) Density
Diversity (Mixed Use, Mixed
Income)
Design (Safe, Comfortable,
active 24x7)

ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN

Microclimate
Designing for sun and shade
The wind environment
Lighting

THE CAPITAL WEB

The capital web encompasses the total public realm the streets, squares, parks, public
buildings and public transport systems all things paid for and used by the public. The
elements on which design attention is initially focused are the movement and green
space networks. In what has become almost a norm, the green space network of parks
and other planted spaces tends to be elaborated wherever possible into an alternative
system for moving around, independent of and interwoven with the main movement
system of streets and pavements.

https://www.architectural-review.com/archive/campaigns/the-big-rethink/the-bigrethink-part-11-urban-design/8643367.article

THE CAPITAL WEB

Public open space
o
o
o
o

Recreational Opportunities
Wildlife habitats
Venues for special events
Opportunity for city to breathe

Road and footpath design

o
o
o
o
o

Safety
Permeability
Equity
Legibility
Address to local context

Parking and servicing

Infrastructure
o
o
o
o
o
o

Public Space
Public Transport
Public Facilities
Water Supply network
Electric grids
Sewage Disposal system

Functional Dimension: Things to document

Land Uses
Active Spaces
Passive Spaces
Elements of Triangulation
Types of public spaces in your stretch(including sketches and
photographs)
Types of user groups and types of activities
Major street space uses: Also, try to locate the possible on-street and
off-street parking.
Road hierarchy map
Active and Passive frontages
INFERENCES & POSSIBLE POTENTIAL AREAS/ASPECTS OF
INTERVENTION